Choosing an HIV-Specialty Pharmacy Improves Patient Outcomes
Research studies show that HIV-specialty pharmacies consistently increase adherence and positive outcomes for patients with HIV.
Since 2001, The Village Pharmacy has built a practice focused on HIV and has helped hundreds of clients on ART. We always have all HIV meds in stock, provide specialized HIV counselling, adherence supports, insurance support and free delivery anywhere in Ontario for our HIV and PrEP Clients.
From CATIE’s blog - Community pharmacists: Underutilized resources in the HIV care team
Published by AIDS Patient Care & STDs
This study assessed adherence and persistence with antiretroviral therapy (ART) for patients using HIV-specialized pharmacies in nine cities from seven states compared to traditional community pharmacy users over a 1-year period.
“Specialized pharmacy users had a significantly greater mean (74.1% versus 69.2%, p<0.0001) and median (90.3% versus 86.3%, p<0.0001) PDC (Proportion of Days Covered). A greater percentage of patients in the Specialized group were able to obtain a PDC of 95% or better (39.3% versus 35.5%). Patients in the Specialized group were significantly more persistent (p=0.0117). Community pharmacies specialized in HIV services may be effective avenues for helping patients achieve greater adherence and persistence with ART.”
Published by the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association
The purpose of this study was to determine if patients using human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specialized pharmacies have greater adherence to drugs used to treat comorbid conditions and HIV compared with patients who use traditional pharmacies.
“The adherence analyses for ART, ACE inhibitors/ARBs, and statins included 14,278, 1,484, and 1,372 pairs, respectively. The mean PDC (Proportion of Days Covered) for ART patients using HIV-specialized pharmacies was higher than that for patients using traditional pharmacies (86.20% vs. 81.87%; P <0.0001). Patients taking ACE inhibitors/ARBs in the specialized group also had a higher mean PDC compared with patients in the traditional group (82.61 vs. 79.66; P = 0.0002), as did specialized pharmacy users in the statin group (83.77 vs. 81.29; P = 0.0009).
HIV patients managed by an HIV-specialized pharmacy have significantly higher adherence to medication for comorbid conditions compared with patients using traditional pharmacies. Patients of HIV-specialized pharmacies also have significantly higher adherence to ART compared with peers using traditional pharmacies.”